Lorde’s cool factor increases so often that even fangirls like myself have trouble keeping up with the 17-year-old New Zealand native’s career. The unapologetic young star has risen from rags to riches in mere months. The singer who stands out amongst a sea of plastic pop-princesses has managed cast herself as the actual coolest. Lorde provides the dose of darkness, realness, and smoky goodness that popular young female music lacks. Don’t listen to those tabloid telling you to brighten up, because girl you can rock that burgundy lipstick.
Lorde’s most recent addition to her repertoire came with the release of the music video to her single “Team.” Like many of Lorde’s songs, “Team” celebrates the underdogs and the simple life.
The video is reflective of the songstress’s style. Echoing the timid triumph of the song, the music video is a toned down drama. Teens are shown in Romanesque robes, sitting in a circle (like teens always seem to be doing) passing around a drink in a plastic gallon (what the gallon contains is a mystery, but it looks a lot like water). The setting of the video is almost otherworldly, as if the teenagers were transported into a time all their own. While most teenage dreamworlds are manifested with money, luxury, and complete unrealistic excess, the world represented in the “Team” video is in ruins. The teenagers exist in a destructed, dark kingdom, which seems to mirror the tumultuous yet simplistic stage in life.
The video suggests that teenagers flock to this world to support each other, it is a place of understanding. It seems as if Lorde and her friends find lost teenagers and bring them to a safer place. The atmosphere offered by the world in the video is majestic in a dark and powerful way.
Lorde is adamant about stressing the normal and anti-glamorous reality of the teenage lifestyle. She recognizes that more than anything, this is an awkward time. According to Huffington Post Lorde explained the inspiration behind her video on her Twitter and Facebook accounts.
When questioned about the casting on Twitter, Lorde responded “"It was important to me that we cast real people with real faces. [H]olla acne!"
The star went into more depth on her Facebook page, reiterating her original vision for the video posting: “This video was born from a dream I had a few months ago about teenagers in their own world, a world with hierarchies and initiations, where the boy who was second in command had acne on his face, and so did the girl who was queen. I dreamt about this world being so different to anything anyone had ever seen, a dark world full of tropical plants and ruins and sweat. And of this world, I dreamt about tests that didn't need to be passed in order to be allowed in: sometimes the person who loses is stronger.”
Lorde could not be clearer with her intentions and is true to her message throughout the entirety of her album Pure Heroine. The “Team” music video encompasses the aura that is Lorde. The teenage singer has developed a unique signature style and she’s working it.
Check out Lorde’s new video and her awesome lipstick below: